Potentially the biggest album released to date on Manchester's Melodic label, The Isles' debut album Perfumed Lands has finally been put to bed in their hometown studios of Action Jackson. For these four twenty-something New Yorkers either have the capacity to bend time and space or appear to have been born in the wrong time and place. Because although their sound is very definitely in the now, it's almost as if they began writing while surrounded by the cream of British '80s pop, fell into a deep sleep, and awoke with hit-seeking precision in a climate where their talents would be best appreciated. Sick of the prevalence of press-the-button-marked-chorus approach to songwriting today, Geller wanted his band's debut to reflect a more classic ethos of sound. The makeup and application may be spiky and contemporary, but the root of The Isles' sound is very much that of inspiration via perspiration. These ten songs evoke English urban grey, wearing the latest New York fashion. January's striking single "Eve Of The Battle" switches from Bunnymen to Strokes with the change of a chord, while "Flying Under Cheap Kites" revels in its excess of melody and discothèque-style backbeat. "Summer Loans" has an unmistakably East Coast groove but such an intrinsically familiar tapestry of woven guitar parts and vocal melody you'll swear you've been getting up to dance to it for the last ten years. If it feels like a homecoming record then that's perhaps because it is: Perfumed Lands is a band's realization of its own distinct sound fitting like hand in glove, that's as comfortable as it is versatile and textured. Grab them before they go global.